Main » About 800 People Protesting in Seoul Against N Korea's Participation in Olympics

About 800 People Protesting in Seoul Against N Korea's Participation in Olympics

12 February 2018

The invitation was delivered on Saturday at a landmark meeting between Moon and the North Korean leader's sister Kim Yo-jong in the Presidential Palace in Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported.

Abe said he had confirmed with Moon the need to maintain strong pressure on North Korea to get it to abandon its nuclear and missile programmes, reiterating Tokyo's stance that "talk for the sake of talk is pointless".

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, left, shakes hands with Fred Warmbier, the father of Otto Warmbier, an American who died previous year, days after his release from captivity in NorthKorea.

The team took to the ice for the first time on Saturday, losing to Switzerland but winning over the crowd as North Korean cheerleaders and South Korean fans roared the players on.

The offer could put Moon in a delicate diplomatic quandary, but he avoided a direct response, said his spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom, and called instead for efforts to "create the right conditions" for a visit.

At Friday's Olympicopening ceremony, athletes from the two nations wore the same white jackets and marched together under a united Korean flag.

The official also noted that while Trump believes in talking, in this case, the issue is not about words but about deeds on North Korea's part.

Pence spent the days leading up to the PyeongchangOlympics warning that the North was trying to "hijack the message and imagery" of the event with its "propaganda".

But as tensions rose between the North and Washington, the Games triggered a rapid reconciliation between the two Koreas, who are still technically at war.

North Korea agreed to participate in PyeongChang after Games' host South Korea and the International Olympic Committee encouraged the reclusive, heavily-sanctioned state to participate as a gesture of peace. If peace is not imminent, a summit in Pyongyang between Mr Moon and Kim Jong Un seems better to most than the threats of recent months. The senior U.S. official said Pence was not trying to avoid the North Korean officials but rather ignore them.

Speaking past year at his swearing-in ceremony, Moon said he would be willing to travel to Pyongyang "under the right conditions", adding that "for peace on the Korean Peninsula, I will do everything that I can do".

It was the first time an inter-Korean team had competed at an Olympic Games.